The present invention relates to an apparatus for self-serve checkout of large order purchases at a retail store. In particular, the invention relates to a self-serve checkout station with a carousel bagging platform.
Over the past few decades, retail point of sales systems have been greatly automated to expedite the checkout process. Technology has contributed significantly to advancements in the retail checkout process, as it has done in virtually all arenas of life.
In the typical retail environment, the customer selects various items for purchase and brings these items to a store clerk for checkout. In the traditional environment, the store clerk would tally the price of the items to be purchased either by hand or by entry of the price into a mechanical or electronic adding machine, which typically is integrated with a cash register into a point-of-sales terminal.
Over the last two decades, point-of-sales terminals have been further enhanced to be part of a computer-based point-of-sales system that includes a database of prices, inventory and other information related to the items for purchase. Each terminal typically has an optical scanner which scans the items to be purchased for a machine readable bar code that identifies the item on its packaging. The operator is able to save time by scanning the items rather than having to manually key in price and product information. When an item is scanned, the optical scanner sends a signal corresponding to the product number of the item to the data processing component of the point-of-sale system, which then obtains from the database the price and the description of the scanned item.
More recently, self-serve checkout point-of-sales systems have been popularized. The self-serve checkout system enables shoppers to scan, bag and pay for their purchases with limited intervention from store personnel, typically for payment, product identification or problem resolution.
These systems typically have self-serve checkout stations that allow the customer to scan the bar codes that appear on the items to be purchased. The station may also provide other user-friendly mechanisms, such as a series of menu choices on a touch-screen monitor, and voice prompts to guide shoppers through the transaction process. It may also assist with entry of product code for items not possessing bar codes. The station may also have an icon on the touch screen which calls a supervisory employee to enter a product code for an uncoded item.
The customer then places the item in an identification area. Eventually the customer, or the system, moves the item to a bag packing or storage area. The self-serve checkout stations may have receipt printers, magnetic payment card readers and coupon acceptors to further reduce the time the supervisory employee must spend on each order. The stations typically are equipped to accept cash, coins, credit cards and debit cards.
Some self-serve checkout stations are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,083,638, 5,115,888, 5,123,494, 5,125,465 and 5,168,961.
Self-serve checkout stations typically possess security features which deter customers from deliberately switching items. A cashier station manned by the supervisory employee typically is near several checkout stations. The proximity of the supervisory employee to the checkout stations has a natural tendency to discourage illicit activities at the checkout stations.
Another security feature includes comparing the weight changes on a packing scale at the identification area, which is adjacent to the scanner, with information retrieved from the computer database regarding the expected weight of the item. The packing area is also equipped with a weight scale, and the system keeps track of a running total weight as items are moved from the identification area to bags in the bagging area. A weighing platform comprising the identification area and bagging area typically accommodates no more than three bags of items at a time.
The self-serve checkout station may also be provided with a video camera unit which views the scales as the items are deposited. The video camera generates a signal received by a display in a supervisor station which allows a supervisory employee to approve non-bar coded items and to survey in general other items deposited on the scales. A plurality of self-serve checkout stations typically are selectively connected to a singular supervisor station by a switching unit, so that a single supervisory employee can monitor the activities at the plurality of checkout stations.
Automated self-serve checkout systems, such as the U-Scan Express(copyright) available from Optimal Robotics Corp., having video cameras and bagging platforms that recognize the weight of each scanned item have become popular amongst retailers throughout North America. The self-serve checkout systems have the potential to save supermarkets significant labor costs. In addition, shoppers find that self-service allows them to get in and out of retail stores more quickly.
The self-serve checkout systems known heretofore are designed as checkout systems for express lanes, i.e. 15 items or less. These self-serve checkout stations are not particularly suitable for large order purchases which require several bags to pack the items. The systems allow only a couple of bags at a particular checkout station to be weighed and monitored simultaneously.
The present invention overcomes these and other disadvantages of prior self-serve checkout systems and provides an apparatus for self-serve checkout of a large order purchase. The apparatus comprises a product code entry device that provides a product code signal corresponding to a product code of an item to be purchased, a rotating mechanism, a bag holding device that holds a plurality of bags open for packing a plurality of items, a scale underneath the rotating mechanism and the bag holding device, and a controller. The bag holding device is coupled with the rotating mechanism and rotates with the rotating mechanism to present a selected one of the plurality of open bags for packing the item to be purchased. The scale generates a weight signal representative of a weight of packed items in the plurality of bags held open by the bag holding device. The controller monitors the product code signal from the product code entry device and the weight signal from the scale to detect one or more abnormalities in the weight represented by the weight signal. The bag holding device may comprise a rack and a platter coupled to the rotating mechanism.
The product code entry device may be a scanner-scale that provides a second weight signal corresponding to a weight of a scanned item on the scanner-scale. The controller compares the weight of the scanned item to be purchased with a change in the weight represented by the weight signal from the scale.
The apparatus further may comprise a product lookup database. The controller retrieves a product entry, including a weight of the item to be purchased, from the product lookup database according to the product code signal corresponding to the item to be purchased, and compares the weight of the item to be purchased with a change in the weight represented by the weight signal from the scale.
The apparatus also may comprise a network interface coupled to the controller. The controller communicates through the network interface with a central point-of-sales database on an external network, and updates the product lookup database with product update information obtained from the centralpoint-of-sales database. The controller also may communicate through the network interface with a supervisor station on an external network.
The present invention also provides an apparatus for self-serve checkout of a large order purchase that comprises a product code entry device which provides a signal corresponding to a product code of an item to be purchased, a bag holding device that holds a plurality of bags open for packing a plurality of items, a first scale underneath the bag holding device which generates a first weight signal representative of a weight of packed items in the plurality of bags held open by the bag holding device, a large item holding assembly including a second scale generating a second weight signal representative of a weight of one or more oversized items on the large item holding assembly, and a controller receiving and monitoring the first weight signal from the first scale and the second weight signal from the second scale to detect one or more abnormalities in one or more of the weights represented by the first and second weight signals. The apparatus further may comprise a bill dispenser that dispenses up to three distinct denominations under a control of the controller.